AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“You said it and I should’ve said it back, but I was shocked,” she explains.
I know the feeling, considering I can’t move my lips or any of my limbs at the moment. It’s like paralysis, those words. Three words I never thought I’d hear from Allison’s mouth again after the last time she said it years and years ago. And then, she’d said it after she broke up with me. Maybe that’s the paralysis factor.
“Unless you…” She shakes her head as a pink flush steals up her throat. “Oh God. You were…You didn’t mean that, did you?” That pink heat continues to her cheeks until her face burns with embarrassment. “You were helping me out and I thought…I thought for sure you couldn’t fake something like that. But you did. And you did it…why did you do it? Jax, why did you say you loved me when—?”
“Mini,” I interrupt. “Shut up.”
In two strides, I’m down the stairs and scooping her into my arms, hugging her close and burying my nose in her hair. She smells as good as she always has. She smells like home. Like she’s mine.
I’m never letting her go again.
She’s hugging me back so tight I almost can’t breathe. I don’t care, though. I don’t care because she’s here and she’s in my arms and that’s all that matters.
“I told Catarina everything.” Her voice is watery with hope. “I told her I was set up to take the fall and Xavier is a horse’s ass and when I came home to my parents you were there instead. I told her that I fell for you…”
Overcome, she trails off, a small sob eking from her throat. I shush her and palm the back of her head, pulling back enough so I can look at her beautiful face, and fall into those dark eyes.
I’m looking at my future.
“I can’t let you quit being famous, Allie. You love it too much.”
She absorbs that and not in the way I want her to. She sounds devastated when she concludes, “You want me to go back to California.”
“Yes,” I tell her, bringing my thumbs up to swipe away her tears. “And I’m coming with you.”
The joyous alarm on her face is worth teasing that announcement out.
“I need you to listen to me carefully, Mini,” I tell her as I study her shifting expressions. “I love you. I want you. Forever. For good. I want you in my life and if that means I have to uproot my job and sell my house to follow you and your dream, this time I’m going to do it. I’m not losing you again. I can’t lose you again. If I let you go you’ll take the rest of my heart. You already took half of it, which means you’ll leave me with none. I need my heart, Allie. I need you.”
She laughs, tears streaming.
I laugh, too, which feels fucking amazing.
“The passcode to my cellphone is your birthday,” I say.
She crushes her lips into mine, holding me tight. When we part, her eyes are closed and her fingers are in my hair.
“It’s all here,” Jules says. Allie and I both turn to look at her and to my everlasting awe, I find my sister smiling in approval. “Allie told Catarina Everhart how she felt about you, and she said that Xavier set her up.” She waggles her phone. “You have a time stamp now, Jax. She meant it.”
I look down at Allie. “I didn’t need proof. I’ve always been able to tell when you were telling me the truth.”
“Except for today. I screwed up,” she repeats.
“It turned out fine.”
“I couldn’t ask you to move to California, Jax.”
“You didn’t.” I kiss her again, reveling in the feel of her in my arms. Never again will I let this girl go.
Shooting star or no, she’s mine to keep.
